European stocks resumed their losses this week as interest-rate cuts failed to ease concern the economy and corporate earnings will deteriorate.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index dropped 1.1 percent in the five days, following the steepest weekly gain since 2001 a week earlier.
ArcelorMittal sank 13 percent after the world’s biggest steelmaker cut production and Lafarge SA slid 9.4 percent as the largest cement producer abandoned its 2010 earnings target. Money managers Man Group PLC and 3i Group PLC dropped more than 10 percent after the value of their assets declined.
Europe’s STOXX 600 retreated 2.47 to 219.6, taking this year’s loss to 40 percent as almost US$700 billion in credit losses dragged down economic growth. Profit concern this week also overshadowed speculation that US President-elect Barack Obama may boost growth with a stimulus package.
Policymakers in the euro zone, the UK, Switzerland and Denmark lowered rates to ease the effects of the global credit squeeze. The Bank of England unexpectedly cut its benchmark lending rate by 1.5 percentage points to the lowest since 1955. The European Central Bank reduced borrowing costs by 50 basis points to 3.25 percent.
Analysts have scaled back their estimates for this year’s profits at STOXX 600 companies to a 6.8 percent drop, from an 11-percent increase forecast at the start of the year, Bloomberg data show.
The European Commission said on Monday the region’s economy probably entered a recession in the third quarter and trimmed its growth forecast for this year to 1.2 percent from 1.3 percent.
The STOXX 600 declined 13 percent last month, its worst monthly performance since September 2002, even after climbing 12 percent in the previous week.
National benchmark indexes fell in seven of 18 western European markets.
Germany’s DAX Index dropped 1 percent. France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.5 percent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.3 percent.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique